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Two weeks ago, we looked at the historic recent turnover in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
In the comment section, a reader asked a good question. User mikelindsey asked when in church history were the most future church presidents serving together in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
He thought he knew the answer, too, and it turns out he was right. Let’s take a look.
From October 1963 to January 1970, seven future church presidents served together in the Quorum of the Twelve.
I’ll share the list here and then point out a couple of remarkable circumstances that made this possible.
The chart shows each of the seven future church presidents, the year they were called to the Quorum of the Twelve and the years they served as the church’s president and prophet.
| Apostle | Year | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Joseph Fielding Smith | 1910 | 1970-72 |
| Harold B. Lee | 1941 | 1972-73 |
| Spencer W. Kimball | 1943 | 1973-85 |
| Ezra Taft Benson | 1943 | 1985-94 |
| Howard W. Hunter | 1959 | 1994-95 |
| Gordon B. Hinckley | 1961 | 1995-2008 |
| Thomas S. Monson | 1963 | 2008-2018 |
(The other members of the quorum for those seven years were Elders Mark E. Petersen, Delbert L. Stapley, Marion G. Romney, LeGrand Richards and Richard L. Evans.)
The vast gap between 1910 and 1963 stands out, doesn’t it? It raises another question to tackle in the future: Is it the largest gap in ordination between two members of the quorum in church history?
As a quick aside, current President Dallin H. Oaks was ordained an apostle in 1984, and he recently ordained Elder Clark G. Gilbert an apostle, a gap of 42 years.
That’s not even within a decade of the chasm in the chart between the ordinations of President Smith and President Monson.
So how did that Golden Era in the quorum happen?
Two simple, related facts made it possible.
First, when President Monson was called in 1963, he was 36 years old. Second, that made him the youngest apostle called since President Smith, who was 33 in 1910.
Yes, President Smith was born in 1876. It was why I wrote at President Monson’s passing in 2018 that he was the final prophet to have served in the Twelve with church leaders who had known people who knew the first, Joseph Smith.
The combined senior church leadership of President Smith and President Monson stretched from 1910 to 2018.
It also spanned 11 of the church’s 18 presidents. The first of those was President Joseph F. Smith Sr. He was the prophet who called his son, Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., to the apostleship in 1910.
Now that’s church history!
My Recent Stories
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About the church
Some major news from the church surrounding the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence:
- The Church of Jesus Christ announced a unified fast on July 5, a day after the anniversary, for fasting and prayer for religious liberty.
- The church also will release a video of two apostles offering “instruction about the significance of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and related events that enabled the restoration of the church.”
The mission experiences of two professional athletes made national news.
A new temple will soon open a short distance from the historic Kirtland Temple. The open house will be conducted June 16-17.
‘Our faith is not ours alone’: Elder and Sister Rasband invited the RootsTech audience to build a legacy of faith.
It’s exciting to have a new Eliza Snow history. See how the book from church historians highlight timeless teachings of this key woman in early Latter-day Saint history.
Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin spoke at RootsTech and shared how, as a deaf person, she has seen that inclusion determines whose stories get told.
Photos provided a first look inside the Lindon Utah Temple — plus 5 facts to know about the new temple as the open house begins Thursday.
What I’m reading
Jacob Z. Hess took at look at the episode of a Daily Wire show that was titled “The Incoherence of Mormonism” and provided a thoughtful look at the perils of ‘explaining’ Latter-day Saints without talking with them.
National polls about morality fascinate me, especially the findings on marital infidelity. While movies and shows seem to normalize it, 90% of Americans view it as morally unacceptable. Here’s what they think about gambling, abortion, homosexuality and more.
At RootsTech, a National Geographic explorer explained how diving to surface ancestors’ lost stories has changed her life.
The Utah Coalition Against Pornography conference is Saturday, March 14. Here’s a brief look at four statistical patterns in modern pornography use that will make you smarter.
Behind the Scenes
